Speaker: Neil Howe

There’s nothing abstract about generations - it’s very personal and very concrete.

Your generational location in life strongly shapes how you see life. 

Recent Generations: 

  • GI: 1901-1924; Childhood WWI, Roaring 20s; Came of age during WWII and Great Depression
  • Silent: 1925-1942; Childhood WWI; Coming of age “american high”
  • Boom 1943-1960: Childhood in “american high”;  Coming of age during consciousness and revolution
  • GenX 1961-1981: Childhood in consciousness and revolution; Coming of age during culture wars and ’90s boom (Obama born in 1961)
  • Millennial 1982-?: Childhood - culture Wars ’90s boom; Coming of age during the War on Terror

With colleges, you’re dealing with Millennials that have Boomer parents

Get ready for Gen X Parent

  • Today 80% of parents of freshman are Boomers
  • By 2013, 80% will be Gen Xers (went to college in the Reagan years, w/Rap, MTV, Devo and Power Ties)

GI Generation

  • Today age 84 and older
  • Sample Members: John Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Walt Disney, Judy Garland, John Wayne, Walter Cronkite
  • Heros of WWII
  • Most uniformed generation per capita in american history
  • Got into huge arguments with their Boomer kids
  • Transformed colleges in the mid-1920s; “helped build the system” - first time you had the middle class getting college degrees
  • New image of a college graduate: “Constructive Teamplayer

Silent Generation

  • Today age 66-63
  • Sample members: John McCain, Colin Powell, Nancy Pelosi, Martin Luther King Jr, Elvis Presley, Sandra Day O’Connor
  • “We don’t want to change the system - we want to work in the system”
  • Got married on average early than any generation in American history
  • Gave us the mid-life crisis and spearheaded the divorce revolution
  • Impact on Education: “we inherited the system” in age of broad (business, labor, voter) consensus on education
  • New image of a college graduate: “credentialed expert”

Boomers

  • Today 48-65
  • Sample Members: Bill and Hillary Clinton; Donald Trump, Spike Lee, George and Laura Bush, Oprah, Bill Gates
  • Sense of individualism and self-sufficient
  • “bowling alone”
  • Values orientation - they’re always telling other generation what’s good and bad, right and wrong
  • Impact on education: “we rejected the system” in an era of social turmoil, youth anger and worsening outcomes - SAT slide down
  • New image of a college graduate: “assertive visionary”

Generation X

  • Age 27-47
  • Sample Members: Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Jeff Bezos, Tiger Woods, Jodie Foster, Kurt Cobain
  • No middle class - you’re either flipping burgers or a corporate lawyer
  • Reputation of doom (”I don’t belong to that generation - I come from a good family”)
  • When this generation started, childhood was at the complete bottom of their parents priorities - fertility rate the lowest in American history
  • “Evil Child” movies bestselling movies for 20 years - Children of the Damned, Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist, It’s Alive, Look What’s Happened to Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, Carrie, Exorcist II, It Lives Again, Damien - Omen II, Halloween, The Children, The Final Conflict, Halloween II, Firestarter, Children of the Corn
  • Impact on Education: “we got by without the system” in era of self-reliance and market-driven competition
  • New Image of a College Graduate: The “just in time” contractor

Millennials

  • Age ? to 26
  • Sample Members: Michael Phelps, LeBron James, Miley Cyrus, Mark Zuckerberg, Hilary Duff, Christopher Paolini
  • “Baby on Board” bumper sticker started to appear on Minivans in 1982
  • Child as devil movies started to bomb at the box office - cuddly baby movies started to do well, also movies about good kids who inspire their parents to be better people
  • When parents couldn’t protect their kids themselves, they started inviting the government to step in
  • Birth of school reform in late 1980s
  • Serious violent crime rate of offenders and victims has declined 65-70% since millennials became teenagers
  • Risk-taking by young people across the board has dramatically declined - they don’t want to let their parents and friends down and they have long term plans for the future
  • 35-40% reduction in teen pregnancy
  • Substance abuse: use of tobacco and alcohol are at the lowest rates ever in grades 8, 10 and 12; marijuana is going down as well.
  • A “boom” generation - a lot of them are board.  This is showing up in college enrollment.
  • Most diverse generation - kids of two large generations of immigrants
  • Peer Personality Traits of Millennials: Special, sheltered, confident, team-oriented, conventional, pressured, achieving 
  • Special: They’ve been told they’re special by everyone - media, people around them, parents.  For colleges, co-market to parents! Channel their energy. Example: Army ads showing kids and parents together.  Also, prepare for students who expect to be treated like VIPs - exploit and leverage those expectations.
  • Sheltered: Parents of Millennials go out of their way to protect kids from harm. Examples: helmet rules, Megan’s laws, graduated auto licenses, safe place havens for kids.  Colleges: market a perimeter, surveilled and accountable campus; sheltering must be interpreted boradly; more in loco parentis, less FERPA.  Also, promote a collegiate, small school feel; banish anonymity and any gaps in structure or supervision.
  • Confident: Optimistic about how well their whole generation is going to do.  Sizable decline in the suicide rate.  Colleges: Stress good outcomes, encourage long-term commitments; require personal progress plans; help students to perform as professionals.  Be male-friendly - create contextual, project-based and career-oriented environment for men. 
  • Team-Oriented: Team-teaching in schools.  Community service. Service learning. Dramatic increase in high school seniors who volunteer. Ideal employers: Google, Disney, Apple, State Department, Peace Corps, CIA, Price Waterhouse, Microsoft, FBI, Teach for America - public service orientation. Colleges: Showcase “live/learn” groups; teach team skills/ create strong service links to the community.  Also Promote engagement in classes and res life, use IT to empower constructive social networks.
  • Conventional: Want to have balanced careers, be good citizens and good neighbors.  82% of them get along with their family. Colleges: Define college as a big-brand bonding experience; stress a single core curriculum; use rituals to celebrate collective progress.  Everyone gets a prize.  Assume need to share and find consensus, and a desire to see faculty as exemplars.
  • Pressured: unstructured free play, sleep, age when career choices are made are all down.  They are not risk-takers.  Colleges: Stress long-term life planning over short-term opportunities; expect big changes in grad school. Stress overall mastery goals, make all tasks achievable with continuous testing, assessment, feedback and redirection. 
  • Achieving: Huge increase in AP scores. National spelling bee winning words: 1950s - psychiatry; 1970; croissant; 1990s; milieu; millennials; prospicience, pococurante, appoggiatura; autochthanous. Colleges: tool of for new insistence on educational quality, standards ROI.

As parents, Xers are far more protective and directive of their children.  Get ready for that shift.  As consumers and voters, Xers are less trusting and respectful of any institution (especially colleges!).   As life planners, they are less optimistic and more calculating.  They think college generically is a good deal, but maybe not your college. As problem-solvers, Xers are more pragmatic, to-the-point and resourceful.  They won’t complain, they’re just withdraw the child.  They aren’t black hawks - they’re stealth fighters.